Nigeria Content Online

The World Social
Forum kicked off on Sunday, February 6, with a march on the streets of
Dakar, Senegal. Among the thousands that marched under the careful
watch of the Senegalese military and police, were people calling for
support for the popular actions in Tunisia and Egypt. There was
palpable feeling of invigorated possibilities of globalising peoples’
power.

I walked behind a
banner with the phrase ‘Leave the Fossil Fuels in the Soil’ closely
followed by another that demanded, ‘Do Not Incinerate Africa’. A couple
of days later, I posted the photo with the banner on the web. Within
minutes, I got a response from a friend who asked, “If we leave the oil
in the soil, how would you fly to the United Kingdom?”

That question
required not just a response, but additional questions. Why must I fly
to the UK? Is flying the sole reason for the large-scale environmental
assault on poor communities that follow oil extractive activities? Does
the ease of my flying to the UK warrant the human blood embedded in
every barrel of oil that circulates around the world today from the oil
fields of Iraq, Nigeria, and elsewhere? Are we serious about combating
climate change if we are not ready to change ourselves, the way we
think, the way we produce, and the way we consume?

As I reflected on
these questions while participating in climate justice debates at the
ongoing World Social Forum, I could not help but ponder on the nexus
between crude oil extraction, dictatorship, the scramble for Africa,
and the unfolding events in Egypt and the global response.

We have seen the
hesitation of major world powers to denounce the clinging on to power
by the Pharaoh who has been ruling Egypt over the past three decades.
Should we expect support for the popular struggle for peoples’ freedom
to choose who leads them, or would the world powers merely move to
ensure that the crude oil movement from and through Egypt remains
unimpeded?

Although Egypt is a
major player in oil production in the Mediterranean Sea fringe, her
strength over the crude oil business globally is due to her control of
the Suez Canal, which provides a short link between the Arabian oil
fields and Europe.

While Nigeria and
Angola top the charts of oil production figures in Africa, Egypt has
had steadily rising oil reserves profile, especially with finds in the
deepwater off the Mediterranean coast. At a point, the country’s
reserve was said to reach 8.2 billion barrels of crude oil and some 60
trillion cubic feet of gas.

Up to 3000 oil
tankers are said to pass through this canal every year. Besides helping
oil vessels make a short ride to Europe and elsewhere through the Suez
Canal, Egypt also runs a 320 kilometre long oil pipeline that goes from
the Ain Sukhna terminal by the Red Sea to Sidi Kerir on the
Mediterranean coast which 2.5 million barrels of oil pass through daily.

Oil stokes fire

Among the many
mineral and other resources that Africa boasts of, and which have
stoked the fires of conflict on the continent, oil stands out. Many
African countries continue to suffer violent conflicts, human rights
abuses, and political instability because of forces struggling to
control the oil fields and the associated wealth.

Oil has played a
major role in the exploitation and suppression of the peoples of South
Sudan and so their eagerness to draw away from the North is
understandable. But even after political separation, the two Sudans
will nevertheless remain tied together by an umbilical cord of oil
pipelines and related infrastructure.

Ghana became an oil
exporter in 2010. For the first time, cocoa and gold will face a
serious challenge as top income earners. But, just as the government
expects huge revenues, the people of the territory where the oil is
being extracted are already worried about the expected impacts. Last
month, after the first oil export, at least four oil spills have been
recorded. Is Ghana echoing the Nigerian situation?

In East Africa,
Uganda planned to commence commercial extraction of crude oil in the
last quarter of 2011. The oil is drilled in protected areas along the
coast of Lake Albert in the famous Rift Valley area. It is a
potentially explosive enterprise as the lake is shared by Uganda and
the Democratic Republic of Congo; an oil spill here will likely affect
both countries.

Moreover, this lake
is the source of River Nile and an oil spill here will impact Sudan and
Egypt downstream. It has already generated human rights abuses such as
restriction of movement in the area and threats of detention by
security forces.

Africa is literally
awash with crude oil and crude oil addicts are strategising on how to
sink their teeth into the waiting veins of land.

How would I fly to
the UK if fossil fuels were left in the soil? What will the world do
when the oil runs dry? As a Saudi Arabian minister once said, “the
Stone Age did not end for lack of stone and the crude oil age will not
end for lack of crude oil.”

We must check our fossil fuels mentality for the future of humanity.